Doug Wada "New Drawings"

Sara Meltzer Gallery

poster for Doug Wada "New Drawings"

This event has ended.

Doug Wada is widely recognized for paintings that depict mass-produced everyday objects on a one-to-one scale. Realized in the languages of Photo-Realism and Pop with a Minimalist sensibility - subway seats, washing machines, trash bins, baby carriages, lampposts and umbrellas, to name a few, are captured with attention to their poetic resonance. While Wada has created works on paper in tandem with most of his paintings, this project marks his first exhibition of drawings.

New Drawings is a seamless continuation of Wada's early paintings of air conditioner units. His source material is an accumulation of observing and documenting the urban environment with an impulse to capture what is rapidly becoming obsolete. Originally attracted to more abstract qualities, here Wada introduces forms of expression to painstakingly drawn renderings of air conditioner vents. Wada has removed the logos to emphasize the repetitive architectural motif and convey an immediacy of expression. In so doing, he reflects on the public's visual experience and highlights evidence of human use as well as tampering

As the Economy continues to struggle and the sweltering summer heat approaches, the ubiquitous image of an air conditioner conjures everyday physical and aural encounters - the humming of electricity in overdrive, the dreaded drip on the head confused for a bird dropping and the blast of hot or cold air one encounters as a passerby. Dents, scratches and graffiti situate the vents in a particularly urban setting where they are readily accessible. Playing off conventions of hanging, Wada brings outdoor architectural elements indoors where the drawings hang at the height of the objects depicted. Not only is the figure implied, but so too are thoughts on consumption and waste, as well as class. Revealing geographic and temporal context through a meditation on the object's design and its unabashed visibility on the facades of structurally outdated buildings, Wada's New Drawings capture a glimpse of our city's architectural landscape in transition.

Media

Schedule

from April 04, 2009 to May 02, 2009

Opening Reception on 2009-04-04 from 18:00 to 20:00

Artist(s)

Doug Wada

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